If you paid via a credit card you could try doing a chargeback with the bank that issued your card. If plastic is unable to refund you, their payment processor will likely be on the hook instead.
Usually the payment processor (square in this case) is responsible for chargeback/fraud costs. The acquiring bank will only end up paying those costs if square goes under and is unable to.
I don't agree that aesthetic features have little purpose in a desktop application - they are a major part of the user experience. In this case the transparency feature is clearly something that a lot of people consider worth having.
Based on Tesla's past claims against Top Gear (that turned out in favor of Top Gear in court), I would give the NY Times the benefit of the doubt here. Especially since Tesla hasn't produced any evidence yet.
> Also, talent. This might be inflammatory, but I venture that the bulk of Canada's A-talent is already in the USA. Given the ease of the TN visa, I think it's not a stretch to say that if you're offering $70K for software engineers in Toronto, you are not hiring any of Canada's top talent, because they're all in the US making $150K+.
A computer programmer/software engineer/software developer is not technically eligible for TN status. A 'Computer Systems Analyst' is eligible for TN status, but as an informal rule if your jobs involves more than 10%-20% coding you do not qualify for Computer Systems Analyst.
While I'm sure many developers are working as a Computer System Analyst, they are at risk of being denied entry every time the enter the country if the USCIS official decides they do not qualify.
So there are still significant immigration barriers that act to keep a good portion of Canadian talent in Canada.
The 1-4% you mention is the interchange rate. This is collected by the issuing bank, and not Visa. Visa typically receives a separate flat fee per transaction. Although often payment processors will charge the merchant a flat percentage fee which includes the interchange fees, acquiring bank fees, association fees, and the payment processors fees.
Visa Europe (a separate company from Visa USA) would likely have to assume liability for chargebacks in the event that the acquiring bank went out of business without transferring it's Visa business to another bank. I'm not sure if such a situation has ever happened though. In general the liability goes: Merchant -> Payment Processor -> Acquiring Bank -> Visa.